Tenth of personal data held by Government is 'inaccurate'

Almost 10 per cent of personal data held by the Government is inaccurate, new research has revealed.

By Andrew Porter, Political Editor

5:50PM GMT 01 Jan 2009

Government figures show that as many as 3.5 millions records, out of a total of 47 million, were not right. The Conservatives said the revelation has serious security issues and warned that some information is being handed to third parties without authorisation.

The data is held on a central database and feeds into other systems including the Treasury's tax records.

Justine Greening, a Tory Treasury spokesman, said: "It is shocking that so much of the data the Government holds on us is inaccurate.

"The Treasury talk about rigorous security procedures, but in practice these don't seem to be being followed. This lax attitude, combined with so much inaccurate information, creates the worrying potential for major security breaches and questions about the safety of our personal details."

The Treasury has suffered from a spate of data loss incidents. The most serious was when two disks containing the details of 25 million people went missing.

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The disks, which held the personal details of all families in the UK with a child under 16, have never been recovered. It included name, address, date of birth, National Insurance number and bank details of 25 million of those who get child benefit.

Miss Greening revealed that HM Revenue and Customs had admitted telling a constituent of hers that they had incorrectly changed her registered address without her authorisation and illegally sent her PAYE information to a third party.

Miss Greening said that made a mockery of Government claims in a written answer that staff "must establish that they have permission/legal authority to disclose it, and that the requestor has entitlement/legal right to receive it".

She added: "This presents a serious security risk, as in the case of my constituent, where her confidential personal details were sent out of third party without her knowledge and for no apparent reason."

In a series of written answers to the Conservatives the Government also admitted that they do not record the number of complaints they receive about the inaccurate information, and there is no assessment of the cost of correcting the errors.

Bosses at the HMRC have admitted there have been other data losses at the department since it was formed in 2005 with the merger of the Inland Revenue and Customs & Excise.